AECP Ink and Blending techniques

I created this card as part of my class assignment for the AECP Ink Blending Level One course. Overall I like how this came out, despite some difficulties I encountered with the stencil, of which I will discuss later in this article. To be honest, I am surprised as I have had this stamp for some time and had not used it as I had difficulty envisioning a layout using these stamps. I thought they were best saved for a scrapbooking page. I am however, happy I decided to give these stamps a try.

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AECP Inking and Blending level one

Unfortunately I encountered bit of a challenge with this stamp and stencil. I discovered,

Oh no – the stencil doesn’t line up with the stamps

after spending the time to create a perfectly blended stencil rose, that the stencil does not match up to the stamp. At least not for the bigger double Rose set. Sadly this meant that after inking and use of my blending brushes to create the look that I wanted, I would be unable to stamp and emboss said image. They simply would not line up correctly.

In image number 2, I had embossed first, before stamping. You can clearly see the misalignment of the stamp. To avoid repeating the first problem with regards to alignment of the shaded images with the stamps and diecuts, I embossed the rose image first. I then covered all areas but for the one section that lined up with the image.. Before using my blending brushes I covered up the flowers and leaves that we’re not going to be in alignment. I also used a pallet, the plastic one from Altenew to rub some of my inks on. I then used my blending brush to a blend the inks onto the brush and apply the ink to the emboss stamped image.

I find that putting the ink on the pallet or even a piece of cellophane and then using the blending brush to pick up the inks from that particular blend creates a smooth or softer look when you’re blending on paper alone. (Even if you dab some ink onto a scrap piece of paper first.). The covering of the flowers and leaves while focusing on the one aligned flo

wer proved successful. The die cuts did line up with the ink blended images. I used the corresponding die-cuts to cut out all of the flowers as well as the fancy stamped and embossed frame and sentiment.

Stencil background

In addition to using the fancy frame die cut to cut the embossed image, I used it to cut several of the fancy frame images from fun foam. I raised the frame around the sentiment on two pieces of fun foam. For additional depth I raised the rose in the bottom right hand corner above the frames with double sided foam tape by tripling the double-sided sticky tape at the bottom portion of the rose and one layer at the top, where it overlapped with the embossed frame.

Before adhering the images to the card, I created a bit more interest to the card base by using the striped stencil on a 45 degree angle with the same inking techniques mentioned above. Please note, this stencil moves quite a bit. As such I first adhered it to the card base with repositionable spray glue.

I added some further "eye pleasing" embellishments for added depth and interest with a few "heat set" rhinestones. I also used one of my shimmer pens to add a touch of shimmer to the roses and the "inset" stamped sentiment.